Eliminate all the old rules, methods, techniques, and paradigms (yes, that much-used label) to clear the space for what is truly new and innovative. Then you can "try on" many new ways of looking at a situation or solving a problem without the burden of what you have been taught in the past.  "The things we fear most in organization - fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances-those are the primary sources of creativity." (M.Wheatley)

Creativity expert Michael Michalko, the author of "Thinkertoys",  says , "Prepare yourself to benefit from chance events, accidents, and failures: "Whenever we attempt to do something and fail, we end up doing something else. That is the first principle of creative accident. We may ask ourselves why we have failed to do what we intended, which is a reasonable question. But, the creative accident provokes a different question: What have we done? Answering that question in a novel, unexpected way is the essential creative act. It is not luck, but creative insight of the highest order."